What two to three issues would you like to see the board of education tackle in the next four years?

Out-Of-Township (Vote for 1)

Justin Lamb: A more clear vision for accommodating the rapid growth of our community.  Fortunately, our district has a facilitating team working on this.  “Bulldog Blueprint” is a team consisting of community members who will help define the priorities and goals for resource allocation, facilities and enhanced student achievement by involving the community in planning for the future.

Getting back to focusing on the values that have made Mahomet-Seymour the excellent district that it is. Refraining from dialogue in meetings that is unproductive and concentrating on work that will improve our district. 

Patrick MacKay: As I mentioned in the first question, the next board will have to tackle several important issues.  These include capacity at our schools, diversity and inclusion, a new contract for the MSEA, just to name a view. I believe the whole community expects action when it comes to the junior high school.  While the construction of a new junior high school could be the appropriate long-term fix, I don’t want to lose sight of the need to tackle the capacity issue in the near term as well.  Another issue I believe the community wants to address is diversity and inclusion.  For me, this is a personal one because my wife and I are raising bi-racial, bilingual children.  To us, diversity and inclusion aren’t buzz words, but are our happy everyday reality. After reading about the experiences of former students of color in our schools, I think it’s impossible to not come to the conclusion that we can do better, that we should do better.  

In-Township (Vote for 2)

Sunny McMurry:

The number one priority of this board, upon the transition, will be to define the roles and responsibilities of board members, determine norms and expectations and commit to those basic understandings. Trust needs to be built or rebuilt and hard conversations need to happen. Without these basic tasks, the Board will not accomplish anything. Ideally, this will involve an outside unbiased expert who is knowledgeable in best practices for school boards in the state of Illinois.

Once the board gets on the same page as far as a mission and vision for the district and working relationships among all members and the superintendent, I would love to tackle a few specific items. 

First, I would love to make sure we are focusing on long term plans to account for the loss of learning and the trauma our kids have experienced over the past year. Students are academically behind where state standards say they should be in order to be college and career ready. This is compounded by the fact that they have been limited in social interactions, have suffered higher levels of stress and anxiety and for some, are living in a constant state of fear. This is going to take several years to address. We need to be thoughtful about supporting the needs this creates both academically and emotionally.

Long-term, we have some big things ahead of us. We really need to be thinking about facilities planning and making sure that the district is spending money wisely. Right now, we have schools that are being used in every square inch and this is not sustainable long term. We need to think about the land we have, the initial conversations (from many, many years ago) about building campuses where MPE is currently located and what is ultimately best for our students and staff. We also need to think carefully about land we currently own that needs to be maintained at a high cost and if it is financially prudent to hold onto that and/or if it serves any purpose for us as a district. 

Rebecca Richardson:

1. Narrowing the achievement gap between low-income/special needs students and non-low-income students
2. Complete a five-year, a ten-year and alternative scenario planning that parallels projected community growth for the Village and the surrounding area (school district)

Max McComb: We need students back in school in person five days a week in order to support the social and emotional development of our children, continue the academic excellence Mahomet-Seymour is known for, and so we can continue to narrow the achievement gap for at risk students.

We need to embrace the traditional values that have generated so much success for our school district. This would include, respecting and encouraging hard work, responsibility, parental involvement and accountability by all stakeholders. We need to recognize that district success benefits students, parents, staff, property owners and the community at large. We should foster an environment where our kids are taught how to think, not what to think.

We are moving ahead, with a community engagement initiative to establish a long term facilities plan.  This initiative is long over due and all about allowing us to hear the voice of our community and establish a strategic vision for our facilities. It should be noted that 3 board members voted against this initiative and continue to fight against it as we move forward. It is very unfortunate that this initiative does not enjoy the support of the entire board.

The board also needs to establish a vision, goals and a strategic plan.  While we’re working on a long term facilities plan through our community engagement initiative, there are other areas where a vision needs to be set by the board—curriculum, finance, communication and engagement.   As a board, all 7 board members need to gain an understanding of what our role is in the district, again, we function at the strategic level, with staff being at the tactical level.  

Finally, our board of education has to find a way to work together to accomplish some basic board responsibilities.  One of those is to establish norms and working agreements and the ability to have efficient and productive meetings and treat each other respectfully and treat the staff respectfully.  While this has not been an issue my first 12 years on the board this has been an ongoing issue during the last two years. We need board member conduct that represents our community in a positive manner.

Laura Lang:

It is imperative that the school board addresses two issues that are long overdue: a 5-year plan for the district and building overcrowding. One of the main roles of a school board is to cast vision for the district, which cannot be done without planning ahead and setting a horizon for which to head. This plan would not be rigid, but rather a framework to work within to anticipate future needs and goals. 

The overcrowding of our current buildings, particularly the Junior High School, has been well known for over ten years, and yet not addressed holistically. Our district is at a junction where not just one but all of our buildings are either over or about to reach capacity, thus we need to think about a longer-term solution. However, it’s also important that we consider how to accomplish this goal with little or no financial burden on our taxpayers. Finally, our district finances are slightly improving, but a long-term plan for improving our district’s financial standing in a State where funding is ever dwindling is imperative.